Plans to market Goa as a tourist destination in China’s prominent cities like Chengdu, Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou have also been put on hold for the time being. It was required as the safety of India and Indians is paramount. The spread of the virus is almost taking an epidemic proportion.
In fact, is it being now considered as one of the most deadliest of viruses in human history. The world over 37,609 cases have been detected, of which 6,198 have been put at the severe category and there have been a total of 814 deaths. The good news is that 2,970 patients have recovered. The virus – which first emerged in Wuhan city in China’s central Hubei province – has spread to 25 countries, including India, the US and the UK. Three confirmed cases have been reported from Kerala in India of which two are in the severe category.
Three weeks ago, President Xi Jinping of China strode onstage before an adoring audience in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing trumpeting his successes in steering China through a tumultuous year and promising “landmark” progress in 2020. However, now Xi faces an accelerating health crisis that is also become a political one as world leaders including US President Donald Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi writing to him and offering help to solve this crises. At present the Chinese government is struggling to contain the virus amid rising public discontent with its performance, the changes that Xi has ushered in could make it difficult for him to escape blame.
According to the Medical News Today newsletter coronavirus was first isolated in 1937 from an infectious bronchitis virus in birds that has the ability to seriously devastate poultry stocks. These viruses are responsible for between 15 and 30 per cent of common colds. Over the last 70 years, scientists have found that coronaviruses can infect mice, rats, dogs, cats, turkeys, horses, pigs, and cattle. Coronaviruses are common in animals of all kinds and sometimes can evolve into forms that can infect humans too. Since the start of the century, two other coronaviruses have jumped to humans, causing the SARS outbreak in 2003 and the MERS outbreak in 2012.
Reputed scientists believe that this new virus first infected humans at the beginning of December last year. It originally seemed like the virus first infected people at a seafood market in Wuhan and spread from there. However, one analysis of early cases of the illness, published on January 24th, found that the first patient to get sick did not have any contact with the market. Scientists are still trying to figure out the outbreak back to its source. It is important to find the source as it can help the scientists to reach to the root cause of this outbreak.
The type of animal the virus originated from is not clear. One team of researchers in China published a report arguing that it came from snakes, based on the genetic code of the virus. However, scientists are very cautious to conclude. Another analysis found that the genetic sequence of the new virus is 96 per cent identical to one corona virus found in bats. It was found that both SARS and MERS had originated in bats. In fact, SARS had also originated from China in 2003.
During the SARS outbreak, Chinese officials attempted to conceal cases from World Health Organisation (WHO) inspectors and limit information, both internally and externally. This time, officials were prompt enough to report the outbreak of the new virus to the WHO, which praised their quick response and transparency in a press conference. China is also allowing a team of WHO experts to assist Chinese public health officials with the ongoing work, the organization announced January 28.
At present it is still not clear how bad this virus can be. However, the good news is that the mortality rate has been reported at 2.16 per cent of the cases detected. What needs to done at this stage is not to panic but to take sensible precaution and maintain good hygiene.
